Dawkins and Aquinas Theology Essay

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Dawkins and Aquinas: Theology
Whether it’s argumentative or sentimental, an author always aims to get a significant truth across to the reader. In the novel “The God Delusion,” Richard Dawkins analyzes many theories that theologians have developed about the existence of God and essentially squanders them. Through his unique sense of humor and his idea of “logic”, he gives reasons of why the theories of Thomas Aquinas, and other theories as well, are not well developed and are incorrect. Although he does raise some interesting points in his arguments, he does not address enough issues to completely reject the theories of God’s existence. God has a very broad meaning and the meaning varies from person to person. Therefore, shutting down the theories of God’s existence outright would not be fair to people who look for God as a purpose to live for.
One of the most prominent theologians in history is Thomas Aquinas, who developed the “five proofs” theory to prove that God exists. Most of his proofs consist of the main idea that everything that exists in the universe has some sort of origin. This origin, in Aquinas’ eyes, is God. In his novel, Dawkins addresses three of Aquinas’ points that hold this idea in his first argument: The Unmoved Mover, The Uncaused Cause, and the Cosmological Argument. His claim is that it does not make sense to immediately assume that everything in the universe can be traced back to God. To aid his argument, he talks about the scientific study of cutting gold. He talks about how if you keep cutting the gold in hopes of having smaller smidgens of gold, it will no longer be gold. His claim is that if you continue to cut gold, it will eventually become merely an atom. What he doesn’t address is where this atom comes from. There must be some origin of the atom, which he doesn’t go into. By using this example, he is essentially saying that if

theologians and supplemented by others. In this paper, I will argue for the existence of God using the ‘Teleological Argument’, also known as the “Watchmaker Argument”. This argues that the complexity of the universe implies a designer. However, Richard Dawkins attempts to criticize this argument in his book The Blind Watchmaker, by supporting an infinite regress of causes. In order to counteract such criticism, I will use the ‘Cosmological Argument’, also known as the “First Cause Argument”. Hence, this

based on the apparent order in the universe.
THOMAS AQUINAS
Central to Thomism – the life work of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 – March 7, 1274) is the idea that Philosophy can help us come to a better understanding of Theology – the study of God. Aquinas thus asked the question: is it obvious that there is a God? His answer was no – since such a concept is beyond all direct human experience. He then asked the question: can it be made obvious? Aquinas believed that, since the universe is God’s creation

explain why science explains,’
Thomas Aquinas used a form of the teleological argument in the fifth of his five ways, ‘from the governance of things’ He argued that there is beneficial order in the universe that could have not happened by chance because many objects are not intelligent enough to be able to work towards an end or purpose. This provides evidence for the existence of an intelligent being. God exists as the explanation of this beneficial order. Aquinas was arguing from design qua regularity

truth of a proposition may only be known to be true after empirical evidence has been used to prove the proposition true or false
William Paley came up with the most famous form of the design argument which was published in his book ‘natural theology’. He argued that if you found a watch on the ground you would assume that it had been designed because it is so complex in the way it works to its purpose therefore could not be a product of mere chance. In the same way our world is too complex because

Normative ethics, or the branch of philosophy that seeks to answer questions about how human beings ought to behave, was in the Europe known to Kierkegaard, dominated by Hegel, Kant, and for those in Catholic Europe the Natural Moral Law of St Thomas Aquinas. All of the aforementioned thinkers sought to prove through comprehensive ethical theories that human reasoning is not only an adequate tool for the formulation of ethical codes and laws but also for ensuring that one is acting in accordance with

If it weren’t fitted together in that certain way, it wouldn’t function. It is based on Aristotle’s final cause – the belief that everything has a purpose, which is moving towards its end, based on an attraction to be perfect like God. For this, Aquinas uses the example of an arrow being directed by an archer.
The second part of the argument is design qua regularity and focuses on the order of the universe. The argument says that there is evidence in the universe itself that there is a designer

to support their theories as superior to the secular alternative. A prime example of this would be St. Thomas Aquinas, who's Summa Theologica sought to offer a series of proofs for the existence of God. Here we see that even the greatest and most respected authorities in the field of theology operate within the tenets laid out by science. The most esteemed atheist thinkers, such as Dawkins and Hitchens, also voice their arguments within the boundaries for valid argumentation layed out by science.

theory. Pascal invented a mechanical calculator, and established the principles of vacuums and the pressure of air. He was raised a Roman Catholic, but in 1654 had a religious vision of God, which turned the direction of his study from science to theology. Pascal began publishing a theological work, Lettres provinciales, in 1656. His most influential theological work, thePensées ("Thoughts"), was a defense of Christianity, which was published after his death. The most famous concept from Pensées was Pascal's

informative way: they may be employing analogy or metaphor or speaking symbolically.
Analogy and Symbol
In the middle ages Thomas Aquinas explored the ways in which we can apply our language to God. For instance, what is the relationship between God’s love and human love? To apply the word ‘love’ univocally is to give it an identical meaning in both situations. But for Aquinas, this use of ‘love’ cannot be univocal as God is too unlike us (he is infinite, immaterial, non-temporal etc) and therefore God’s

interaction is symbolic in itself and in essence non-contractual…the gift of sociality itself, which is expected, can be seen as grace, because the sovereign has no contractual obligation to give. To this extent, Hobbes’ political theory is a political theology.” 43 Ibidem, p201 44 Cf. Infra Part II, Chapter IV. The Prisoner’s Dilemma demonstrates this quite clearly. The Prisoner’s Dilemma constitutes an archetype of a non-mechanically regulated market exchange. The Prisoner’s Dilemma proves the solution